NTS says sew to save St Kilda puffins

The National Trust for Scotland, is looking for volunteers with a talent for sewing to make simple bags to help save lost puffin chicks on the Dual World Heritage Site, St Kilda.

Every year, dozens of pufflings become disorientated by lights from the buildings on the isolated island of Hirta and end up inland, instead of out at sea. Ranger staff, who live on the island throughout the summer, regularly rescue pufflings by placing them in small, cotton drawstrings bags to keep them safe, take them to the coast and release them out to sea.

Now, Property Manager Susan Bain is asking for help from keen sewers to produce more of the bags that are needed to aid the rescue of the lost puffin chicks.

St Kilda is an internationally important seabird colony and hosts thousands of breeding puffins from April until August.

Susan said, “St Kilda’s seabirds are so important, so we do everything we can to protect their populations. Every puffling is precious and we rescue everyone we can. Our staff take great care to keep any lights to a minimum. Despite this, we always seem to find some stray pufflings around the staff housing. It is really important that we make the release of these birds as stress free as possible. The bags really seem to work well and we need to replenish our stock for the summer season.”

Anyone interested in playing their part in providing these rescue sacks for next season’s pufflings should contact Susan Bain on 01463 232034.